Archive for October, 2007

I am riding through a Maxwell Parrish painting. It’s a bit after 9:00 AM and I’m riding north on Gordon Valley Road. Fairfield is behind me. I’m following the route of the Foxy Fall Century. The day is still, unusual for Fairfield. In fact yesterday the whole valley had been scoured by a north wind. The wind died with the sun, eucaplytus trees stretch wide in the vivid morning light. The roads are quiet. I’m gradually climbing and have been since I reached the bottom of the pedistrian overcrossing that connects the Amtrak station to downtown Fairfield.

I’m having trouble getting into the ride. I awakened a bit before 7:00 AM, dressed quietly, ate my breakfast of grapenuts and yogurt, loaded up the bike and headed downtown. The weather station told me it was 46 degrees outside. I stopped at Peet’s, bought two large coffees and walked my bike down the three blocks to the Amtrak station. I drank my coffee on one of the benchs. I was surprised at all the bikes parked around the station, maybe a hundred of them, some locked to the iron fence that lines the concrete platform. The tracks arc eastward, climb over the slightest of rises to the west as they disappear toward the south-east.